Shadow Guardian
by Joker of Clover
Summary: When someone cheats Death, they leave behind a Shadow. They take the place of their Caster until their Caster to dies, then the Shadow is destroyed. A Shadow can go into the world of the living and search for their Caster in order to prolong their life, but if they fail to find their Caster in one year, they are destroyed. So why can I find her best friend but not my Caster Rose?
1. Chapter 1

Things die. But they don't always stay dead. Believe me, I know.

There's a race of vampires on this earth who are literally the walking dead. They're called Strigoi. They're kinda like the superhumans of vampires. Fast, strong, kill without mercy or hesitation. There's only three ways to kill them: Silver stake through the heart-Don't miss. If you do they'll just be even more pissed and take their time ripping out you're organs with a rusty fork-, decapitation-which can be really messy, and problematic if you're short and they're in the NBA- and finally setting them on fire-which can't happen if there is no fire.- so yeah, it is a bitch to kill those guys. But hey, better than nothing I guess.

But hey, don't give up on vampires yet and join the LET'S GO KILL ALL VAMPIRES CLUB. There is a good race of them walking around too. They're called Moroi. Unlike Strigoi, they're alive and have this awesome power to control magic in each of the four elements-earth, air, water and fire- (Well, _most_ Moroi can do this-but I'll explain the exceptions in a bit). They don't use magic much anymore, which is a downer. If they could, they wouldn't need guardians anymore! Moroi are tall and slim, and can't handle sunlight a lot. But they do have superhuman senses that make up for it: sight, smell, and hearing.

Both kinds of vampires need blood, that is what makes them vampires anyways. Here's the giant difference: Strigori like to prey on the innocent and drain them. Moroi keep humans around and drink small amounts. _But Ms. Narrator! Why would someone want to be bitten by a vampire?_ Well kids! Vampires bites contain endorphins, like drugs. So these humans become feeders, or as we know them junkies! But here's the thing, if a Moroi kills the person they're feeding on they become Strigoi. Be it accident or not. Some do do it on purpose, giving up their morals and magic to have immortality. Strigoi can change someone to Strigoi by force. First, the Strigoi drinks you're blood then you drink they're blood and _bam!_ a new Strigoi!

This can happen to anyone: Human, Moroi, and dhampires, half-human half-vampire.

Dhampires are made when a human or a dhampire and a Moroi hook up. Dhampires act as bodyguards for the Moroi. It's mostly men since the majority of female dhampires decide to stay home to raise the kids. Some of them have flings with Moroi men that leave right after in order to create more dhampires.

My Caster: Rose Hathaway, is a dhampire. She's currently training to become Lissa Dragomirs' guardian. They have been best friends since kindergarten and Lissa is the last one in her family after a car accident that also killed Rose.

Remember when I said every Moroi wields an element? See, Lissa she wields one no one knows about: spirit. Normally it just seemed like she wasn't going to develop he magical abilities. But then strange things started happening. All vampires have a thing called compulsion that forces their will onto others. Hers it super strong. If you thought that was cool wait until you read this. Remember when I said Rose had died? Yeah, Lissa is the one that brought her back from the Land of Lord Death, making Rose shadow-kissed.

And this is where I come in.

When she brought Rose back to life, she made me-A Shadow. We're suppose to take the place of our Castor-the one that was brought back to life- and live in the afterlife and when our Castor dies once more, we're completely Erased. Gone, disperse, no more. Think of living in constant fear that every day, every hour, every minute, every second is your last. That you won't go on and go to Hell or Heaven, no you are gone. It's like you never existed. Kinda scary right? Yeah. For Death entertainment, he'll allow Shadows to go to the Land of the Living to find our Castors. If we do, then our ties with the afterlife broken and we become our own person. Well not really, you have to protect our Castor. Once they die we die but we then don't have to worry about being Erased. But if we don't find them then the Shadow will automatically be Erased and the Castor lives.

The catch is: We don't know where our Castors are, we aren't even placed in the same nation as them. We have no help. We have to survive on our own. All in one year.

It's been nine months, and I still haven't found her yet.


	2. Chapter 2

So maybe we do have _some_ help but it's not that much or useless at times. Example one: Fragments. They're like little pieces of a memory our Castor had, be it a place, a feeling or a person. But a Shadow has to be in the area of the memory. Another thing we have is a random item. Sometimes it could be really helpful, other times it can just be useless. I know one Shadow I ran into while looking for Rose had gotten a water bottle. Me? I had the luck to get a silver double-edged sword-awesome for getting rid of heads. Not as cool as a stake but eh, better than a water bottle.

One of the Fragments I've experienced was Montana. No image, no real memory just the word over and over again. So, I traveled from Germany to Montana with some frightening experiences that includes the following: Strigori. One night when I was walking towards the airport for my flight, three of them had appeared. All of them were taller than me which nearly made decapitation impossible but they're comes a time in life where you have to cut someone-well undead vampires- down to size. _Literally_. After cutting off the first Strigori's legs and then the head, the other two had caught on quickly. They kept me away from they're legs. But left they're chest open. Let's just say it was not a neat, clean killing.

The police. Explaining why three guys were chopped up isn't exactly easy. Explaining why you have blood on you is harder. Explaining why a fifth-teen year old is at an airport, at night, alone, with no guardian or parent, is even harder. Thanks to Death, he placed a Iluzia- an illusion that alters what humans and some dhampires sees- on our weapons. _That_ would have been hell to explain.

You see where I'm going with this right? Yeah, shit happened on my here and guess what?

No Rose!

Doesn't that just make me a happy Shadow! I have three more months to live and she's probably at a club living it up! I muttered curses as I exited the most recent cub I've searched. I've had Fragments of her in them but none of the ones I've went to have even heard of her. It was dark out, midnight I guessed, and the streetlights barely lit anything. I gulped. It would be easy for any Strigori to get the drop on me.

Pulling the hood of my red jacket up, I kept my gaze on the ground as I stalked off to find another local club. My sword was in its scabbard strapped to my back, the handle over my shoulder. Again, thank you Death for Iluzia! Making Shadow's life slightly easier!

"Leave them alone!"

I stopped walking. Peering into the alley I was about to walk by, I saw a girl at the end of the alley behind a man who appeared to be in his twenties. On the ground to the side of them was another boy holding his stomach. In front of them was a tall guy. Immediately I could tell he was a Strigori. Whenever I was near one I would become nauseated. A terrible feeling but it sure is helpful.

Cautiously, I stepped into the alley praying that I make no noise. The Strigori didn't seem to hear my approach. The oldest of the three-a Moroi- looked at me with fearful eyes. They lingered for a second too long. The Strigori whipped his head around and looked at me before he rushed towards me. Quickly, I moved to the side, swiftly taking out my sword just in time to block the Strigori's kick. Growling, he added pressure to the blade trying to force it out my hand. It almost worked until I turned the blade slightly so he was adding pressure onto the sharp edge of the blade. The Strigori screamed and removed his leg quickly, trying to punch me. I moved the sword in an arc just as his fist nearly brushed my face. This time he gave an ear-piercing wail and fell to the ground, covering the stump where his hand use to be. With that, I sliced off his head.

With a sigh, I returned the now red sword back to its metal scabbard, trying not to look at the body. I turned towards the Moroi- I could see how pale they were now-. The female Moroi has kneeling by the boy on the ground her hands hovering over his stomach. The oldest Moroi looked at me with an unreadable expression standing in front of the other two like a barrier.

You know that feeling you have when you swore you saw someone before but you don't remember anything about meeting them? Exactly how I was feeling at the moment. But I know I never seen him before in my nine months of living, but Rose has. Somewhere with snow... and smoke?

"Who are you?" The Moroi said looking me down with a weary expression. I didn't blame him. Who else would be carefully around someone with a sword? Go ahead, even _I'm _rasing my hand. Now how to explain what the elf I am? I could always say I'm a human... but something told me he already knew that was a lie.

The girl looked up from the -now sitting up, glaring at me like _I _was the one to knock hin out- boy. "Adrian, be nice. She did save us." she said and then looked at me with a smile that I've seen a million times. A rush of images went though my head. _Her feeding off of me... no Rose. Her talking to another Moroi at a church in the attic. Her being tortured by Victor. Her face when she saw Rose with a Moroi. Her crying as I left.. It wasn't me! It was Rose! Not me!_ I focused on Lissa's face, willing the images to leave my head before I confused myself with my Castor again. That's the second worst part about being a Shadow: being overwhelmed with memories of someone else. It almost feels like you're just a copy of something.

Technically we are but still.

Lissa stood up along with the Moroi-Christian- said, "Thank you." then she casted a glance at Adrian who was still giving me an unreadable expression before she continued uneasily, she was always polite to everyone, "W-who are you though?"

Before I could stop myself from talking, before I could come up with a temporary name, I had already said the name they knew all to well.

"Rose Hat-" Luckily though I bit my tongue (_Literally_) before I could say her last name. All their expressions were mixed.

Lissa was astonished if the open mouth and wide eyes had anything to say.

Christian had raised an eyebrow and stepped a bit in front of Lissa protectively.

And Adrian? He threw up his hands and let out a exhausted breathe. "Looks like we were saved by a psychopath!"

"I am not a psycho!" I said glaring at the overly dramatic boy. True, I did seem like one considering the body behind me, and saying my name was their friend who I had no resemblance to. The only thing we have in common was the fact we are both girls!

Adrian looked at me with a look of disbelief, "I'm sorry Miss Rose Hat, did you _not _just slice that Strigori up like he was paper?"

"And saved us in the process." Christian added with a grin. At least someone was remembering what lead us to this moment! Lissa nodded, naturally agreeing with Christian. Adrian looked at both of them like they were nut cases, and then he looked back at me with concentration, his eyes were squinted and then they widen for a second as he shook his head.

"Lissa, look at her aura." He said bitterly watching me with a hawk's eyes. Lissa hesitated for a second before he looked at me the same way Adrian did. I was as confused as Christian. After awhile she shook her head.

"I can't see anything."

"That's because she doesn't have one."

**That's it for this chapter. Thanks to everyone who read. A special thanks to 15millerj, jreaties96 and Dimitri' .Shewolf. Sorry if the characters are OOC I shall work on that. So tell me what you think and maybe follow and favorite?**


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